Saturday, 26 July 2014

What’s with the ‘difficult’ problem thing on Facebook?

OK, so what are these things all about? New age problems for a
seriously dumbed down society or am I missing some clever irony? I’ve just seen
another one. It says

‘Name a CITY that does not have the letter “A” in it. Bet you can’t.’
Someone has added ‘This is hard!’

As I read it I thought Hereford, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Hull (or
even Kingston-upon-Hull for the purists)... and wondered what the point was.
Previous ones have been along the lines of ‘Bet you can’t say your own name
without falling over backwards – this is hard!’

Ah well, I'm not sure that the lonely runner problem has an answer at all. I think conclaves of mathematicians huddle over coffee and notebooks working at it.I could be wrong. To be honest, it's hard to work up the motivation to go and check, but at least it's worthy of the title 'hard problem', unlike the recent spate of "Can you think of a month with an R in it ... word with an A in it ... sea with a fish in it - wow this is hard" and like 'problems' that have been spreading across FB like a rash.I will consult with my mathematician mates next week.Vitamins: the ones that come encased in white wine.

Like Linda, I'd love to understand the problem, let alone know the answer. Mathematics at a certain level is a foreign language and, yes, I expect this is hard, especially for someone who has no knowledge of what the various symbols actually mean, Penny. But you're right, the recent proliferation of 'hard' questions appears to bea sign that people are generally not very bright. One wonders, is this a lack of education, a failure to concentrate due to too many superficial interests, or simply laziness on the part of those posing the 'hard' problems?

Thanks for the comment, Stuart. One problem I find with maths at a certain level is that you lose the detail if you aren't doing it regularly. There was a time I could have given you the mathematical proof why a single stage rocket can't take off from the earth's surface and get into space, or shown you how to calculate the height of a satellite or even derived E=mc squared from first principles. I don't think I could do that now, and there are people in my immediate circle who are very relieved. Everything has its upside.

Hi Tony, thanks for dropping in. I've always loved a puzzle and have more than once written myself into a corner in a crime novel by getting just too clever with the twists and turns, but my maths is no longer up to solving things like the lonely runner one.